The History of 30 Assault Unit: Ian Fleming's Red Indians

By Craig Cabell

The Second World War spawned a plethora of crack special forces units (Long Range Desert Group, SAS, SBS, Phantom and Commandos) but 30 Assault Unit remains, even today, far more secretive and exclusive than the others. Formed by Ian Fleming, who was working for Naval Intelligence, 30 AUs mission was to penetrate and operate behind enemy lines, capture by whatever means necessary vital intelligence and feed it back to London where it could be assimilated and acted upon. This crack team of commandos included mavericks such as Patrick Dalzel-Job (generally regarded as the model for Flemings fictional secret agent 007), and less well known (despite their conspicuous bravery) figures such as Captains Huntingdon-Whiteley, Captain Martin-Smith. Lieutenant Commander Curtis and Lieutenant McFee. The author has trawled archives and interviewed veterans in order to piece together the history and record of this elusive special forces unit who fought with great distinction and achieved results disproportionate to their size.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781844688203

Book preview

Books by Craig Cabell

Frederick Forsyth – A Matter of Protocol, the Authorised Biography

The Kray Brothers – The Image Shattered

James Herbert – Devil in the Dark, the Authorised True Story

Operation Big Ben – the anti-V2 Spitfire Missions 1944-45 (with Graham. A

Thomas)

VE Day – A Day to Remember (with Allan Richards)

Snipers (with Richard Brown)

Dennis Wheatley – Churchill’s Storyteller

Getting Away With Murder (with Lenny Hamilton)

Witchfinder General – the Biography of Matthew Hopkins

Ian Fleming’s Secret War – Author of James Bond

The Hunt for Captain Kidd (with Graham A. Thomas & Allan Richards)

The Hunt for Blackbeard (with Graham A. Thomas & Allan Richards)

The History of 30 Assault Unit – Ian Fleming’s Red Indians

Ian Rankin and Inspector Rebus

(Chap Books)

Dennis Wheatley and the Occult

Black Sniper (fiction)

I was Alive Then – The Spike Milligan Interviews

The Grapes of MoD – ten years of wine consumption

30 Assault Unit User Manual

Dennis Wheatley’s Total War

The Curse of the Bakervilles

William – The Story of a Royal Marine

Robert Heinlein Complete UK Bibliography

(Special Introductions)

Furies Over Korea – the story of the men of the Fleet Air Arm, RAF and

Commonwealth who defended South Korea, 1950-1953, by Graham A. Thomas

Firestorm, Typhoons Over Caen, 1944 by Graham A. Thomas

Terror from the Sky – the Battle Against the Flying Bomb by Graham A. Thomas

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright © Craig Cabell, 2009

ISBN 978 1 84415 950 5

ePub ISBN: 9781844688203

PRC ISBN: 9781844688210

The right of Craig Cabell to be identified as author of

this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical

including photocopying, recording or by any information storage

and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England by

CPI UK

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of

Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,

Wharncliffe Local History, Pen and Sword Select, Pen and Sword Military Classics,

Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

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While the author has taken all reasonable steps to track down and clear

copyright of images used, this has not proved possible in every case and

any unavoidable omission is regretted

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Charles Wheeler, Patrick Dalzel-Job, Lt Cdr D.M. Curtis, Captain Huntingdon-Whiteley, Captain Martin-Smith, Bill Thomas, James Powell and all the other men of 30 Assault Unit. My honour was to talk and meet with some of you – for you this modest tome, may your contribution never be forgotten.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Notes on the Text

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part 1           30 Commando Unit

Chapter 1      A Good Idea Borrowed

Chapter 2      Operational Duties

Chapter 3      The Unit is Formed

Chapter 4      Let’s See Action

Chapter 5      Deeper into Africa

Chapter 6      30 CU Undergoes a Reshuffle

Chapter 7      Cape Passero and Other Difficulties

Chapter 8      A More Professional Unit

Chapter 9      All Shook Up

Chapter 10    30 CU Assessment

Chapter 11    Southern Italy

Chapter 12    An Admiral’s Interrogation and its Consequences

Chapter 13     Further Work in Southern Italy

Chapter 14    Continuing the Good Work

Chapter 15    Concluding the Mediterranean

Part 2            30 Assault Unit

Chapter 16    Planning for Operation OVERLORD

Chapter 17    D-Day

Chapter 18    V Rockets

Chapter 19    Paris and the Port of Brest

Chapter 20    The V Rocket Vendetta

Chapter 21    Conquering Europe

Chapter 22    The Enemy Begins to Crumble

Chapter 23    From the End to PAPERCLIP

Afterword

Annexe A      From V Rockets to Moonraker

Annexe B      The Men of 30 Assault Unit

Annexe C      30 Assault Unit Officer Profiles

Notes

Sources and Further Reading

Index

Preface

‘While he, Bond, had been playing Red Indians through the

years … the real enemy had been working quietly, coldly,

without heroics, right there at his elbow.’

Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming played an important role during the Second World War as a Naval Intelligence officer. One of his many projects was creating a crack team of commandos called 30 Assault Unit (30 AU) (formerly 30 Commando Unit). Their antics and derring-do are one of the best-kept secrets of the Second World War.

Through archive material and interviews with surviving veterans, the history of 30 AU is now pieced together to celebrate the passion and bravery of one of the greatest commando units of the Second World War.

30 AU’s mission was to penetrate enemy lines, capture vital intelligence and feed it back to London where it could be assimilated and acted upon. They were the first unit ever to attack a V-rocket establishment, and one of them, Patrick Dalzel-Job, was reputably the main influence for Fleming’s fictional secret agent, James Bond. Other officers such as Lieutenant Commander Curtis, Captain Huntingdon-Whiteley, Captain Martin-Smith and Lieutenant McFee, remain unknown despite significant bravery, until now.

On 4 July 2008, the BBC News at Ten announced the death of Charles Wheeler. They spoke of his great contribution to broadcasting, calling him the greatest broadcaster of all time. They showed an interview clip where he spoke of being brought up in Nazi Germany, how his friends – the Jews – used to hide in the woods. The one thing the BBC failed to speak of was Mr Wheeler’s contribution to the Second World War, how he, as part of 30 AU, tenaciously interrogated prisoners of war and was at the sharp end throughout.

Charles Wheeler, Patrick Dalzel-Job and the other members of 30 AU are some of the true unsung heroes of the Second World War, as this book bares testament. Dalzel-Job was an important figure and Charles Wheeler was his brother-in-arms; but little is known of their bravery and tenacity.

This book highlights Charles Wheeler’s contribution to the Second World War, which has been largely unappreciated until now. It is testament to the man’s character that he never boasted about his contribution to 30 AU; but that is indicative of the war veteran of yesteryear. People like Charles Wheeler, Patrick Dalzel-Job and former broadcaster Raymond Baxter and, I dare say, many friends and relations of people who read this book, rarely spoke about their work during that period. For them, certain things were better off left unsaid, while nowadays, many ex-servicemen are keen to go into print regarding their days of action. Life now is more transparent in many ways. What we have in the following pages is the formation and implication of a very different type of commando unit, which contributed much to the success of the Allied forces during the Second World War and, because of their secret work, have been unappreciated for over sixty years.

Craig Cabell

London, 2009

Acknowledgements

The key people who made this book happen are: Charles Wheeler, Joan Bright Astley, Bill Thomas and James ‘Bill’ Powell. Their memories and perceptions became so very important when I applied the personal touch to the wealth of material found in archive; especially the bits that weren’t mentioned. Each had a fascinating insight and important piece of the complex jigsaw that I was building, which was largely undocumented. Thank you for your memories and perceptions.

I would also like to thank good friends Steve White, Mark Ottowell, Dave Barlow and Graham A. Thomas, for their support during the early stages of this book. I would also like to thank my family for putting up with yet another writing project: Anita, Samantha, Nathan, Fern, my father Colin, Berny and Dave (all the people that have to endure my thought processes on an almost daily basis), and David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen for the companionship while I proofed the final manuscript. I would also like to thank Keith and Penny at The Marine public house, the spiritual home of 30 AU, and Diana, the secretary of 30 AU, who really helped in getting me on the road. It was an honour to talk to veterans of the unit – they really are so modest; to talk to the brilliant Charles Wheeler: ‘What do you really know about us, Craig?’ ‘That’s interesting, now read this and let’s talk some more.’ Bless you, dear sir, I hope I’ve done you justice.

I would like to thank Ted Poole for his kindness and generosity – the 30 AU print is a cherished possession and you are a great artist.

I would like to thank Steve Moore for that quirky advice that makes him so invaluable, a great, great friend and, last but by no means least, I would like to thank the men and women of the current Armed Forces who I have worked alongside for the past twenty years – it is your incredible professionalism, largely unappreciated in my opinion, that gave me the drive to write this book about some of your predecessors.

I would also like to thank Pen & Sword who put up with a late manuscript, my only excuse being I wanted to ensure that this book is as right as possible, which was a challenge because of the sensitivities surrounding the unit’s work to this day; but we got there.

Sincerely, many thanks to all.

Craig Cabell

London, 2009

Notes on the Text

I would like to make it clear that I have split this history into two distinct parts for clarity. The first concerns the formation of the unit and its first year. During this period, the unit went through various tenuous titles, most commonly 30 Commando; but many other titles were used. For uniformity and ease for the reader, I call the unit 30 CU (30 Commando Unit) throughout. This may be technically incorrect for the purest; but then again, so are the various other titles, knick-names, misrepresentations, so 30 CU it is.

For the second part of this history I give the correct title of the unit as the newly formed 30 AU (30 Assault Unit); the title they were commonly referred to since the preparations of Operation OVERLORD started and a title that signified the end of their apprenticeship (and teething problems), forging them as the crack team of special commandos they were in Europe during the latter stages of the Second World War.

So, in short, the two parts don’t just split 30 CU from 30 AU, they also split the fledgling unit from the professional one and give the reader a clear perception of each.

There are some disparate documents and books that concern 30 AU/Ian Fleming and, in order to provide a clear and unbiased basic history of the unit, I had to structure certain famous operations – such as OVERLORD – upon the basic facts and then add 30 AU into the mix. This simplistic but effective approach provided me with much quality background and clarity, but at the same time threw up several contradictions that were tricky to iron out. However, key books such as Alanbrooke’s diaries, Montgomery’s memoirs and Patton’s diaries/memoirs proved to be most helpful, along with oddities such as the authorized biography of Cheshire and the modest autobiography of Patrick Dalzel-Job (see ‘Further Reading’ at the back of the book for full details).The main difficulties with the history of 30 AU came from the Top Secret work they did from Operation OVERLORD onwards. It is interesting that the official history misses out a lot of 30 AUs key moments and how they affected the broader canvas (what other units and the Allies were doing), which really is instrumental in ascertaining their huge importance to the final victory.

30 AU, no matter what way you look at it, played a major part in the plotting, capture and disablement of V1 and V2 rocket sites (under the respective titles Operation CROSSBOW and Operation BIG BEN). Furthermore, the veterans state that the importance of gathering intelligence concerning the V1s and V2s was paramount after OVERLORD and the chapters concerning this aspect of 30 AU’s work have taken nine years to build. Primary research material has been hard but not impossible to gather, secondary research is rationalized at the endnotes or appendixes and is clearly marked as such. I labour the documenting of this area for the simple reason that it may assist any future researcher who stumbles across any additional primary documents worthy of capture in the future!

Although there is a tendency with works of this nature to use language and grammar evocative of the time – especially within certain quotes – I have refrained from doing so. Current word usage is used throughout, however many military abbreviations – and some more obscure ones – are used throughout the text to help the flow of the history. A key to these abbreviations follows this note. Also, the endnotes provide supporting descriptions and other information concerning units, departments, operations and perceptions from key personnel and are there to add greater clarity and perception to the modus operandi of 30 AU, without upsetting the flow or clarity of the text. So enjoy!

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

‘It was marvellous with what confidence and precision they

went about their ordered world. Everything, you see, had been

made to fit their needs.’

The Country of the Blind, H.G. Wells

There were many heroic episodes during the Second World War, many incidents that were over-analysed and documented by the multitude of veterans and biographers over the years. Some are instantly known to the public, even to those with little interest in military history, through impressive movies such